I must admit, it’s been a really long while since I’ve heard a new album with this sound. Sure, there are doom metal bands, and even sub-genres aplenty, but I’ve not heard anything this classic sounding for many years. To be honest I wasn’t sure if bands were making this kind of metal any more, but that could be because I spend most of my time living in a cave, cursing modernity with bony fists. There is probably some mad cackling involved too.
Anyway, to me dusty old ears, this debut album from Sorcerer is a welcome breath of fresh air. Within seconds of hearing the opening riff, I knew that they were from Sweden. It wasn’t just pure instinct that drew me to that conclusion, but this band have perfectly captured the Epic Doom Metal majesty that only Candlemass and a select bunch of others could. Like so many other bands, Sorcerer are underground veterans, having fought the good fight since the late 80’s! It must be immensely satisfying for them to have finally brought out a full length debut album, and you can tell that the band have been honing their craft for a long time; it reeks of quality.
I know it is probably lazy writing to constantly refer to other bands when attempting to describe the sound of a band’s new album, but Candlemass constantly come to mind when listening to `In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross’. It is not just the early, atmospheric, dramatic yet primitive sound of `Epicus Doomicus Metallicus’ on display here, although there is plenty of that dark, eerie single-note riffing present; there is also a slick, glossy and highly polished sound reminiscent of the mid period releases, such as `Chapter VI’.
There is a hint of keyboard here and there, as well as a very polished vocal performance from Anders Engberg, who has a very powerful yet smooth and pleasant voice. He doesn’t have the melodramatic, blood curdling warble of Messiah Marcolin, but sings with passion, conviction and aplomb. There are also some truly fantastic, earth shattering guitar solos which really crank the high drama up a notch. It probably shouldn’t be that surprising that Sorcerer are a talented bunch, several of them are ex-members of Therion.
On the whole this is a good, solid debut album. The songs are well crafted, the doom is dark, dramatic and atmospheric, yet with enough gloss to hopefully have a wider appeal. For my tastes it isn’t quite `grim’ enough, but for the traditional Doom Metal fan there is a lot to enjoy here (particularly fans of a certain band whose name begins with `C’).
(7/10 Jon Butlin)
https://www.facebook.com/sorcererdoom
Leave a Reply